November 2004

Phil talks with independent journalist Keith Harmon Snow live from Kinshasa in the Congo. Snow talks about the current situation in the Congo, which he describes as corruption and racketeering, mainly sponsored by Western corporations in allegiance with various armies and militias. The goal is the plunder of Congo's resources: timber, coltan, oil, gold and diamonds. Over five million have died in the last few years in these conflicts, but it's not in the news.

Phil also talks with Phil Conlon about the current events in Africa and in Ukraine. Phil reads John Laughland's insightful piece from the Guardian titled "The Revolution Televised - The western media's view of Ukraine's election is hopelessly biased".

Phil interviews Alexander Cockburn, editor of Counterpunch, about the current US election campaign. Cockburn argues against the view that opponents of Bush have to support Kerry. Kerry's position on foreign policy is pretty much the same as Bush's or worse (on Israel for example), and his domestic policies favour the wealthy as much as Bush's do. Cockburn's recent book "Dime's Worth of Difference" about the Democrats and Republicans takes it's title from Waylon Jennings who said, "there ain't a dime's worth of difference between them". Cockburn says labour in the US is in a desperate situation, yet the SEIU spent $70 million on the election - much of it to knock Ralph Nader off the ballot. Meanwhile Kerry has supported every trade bill going.

Phil also talks to lawyer David Jacobs about dramatic news from the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. The Tribunal had ruled that Milosevic was not permitted to present his own defence and had tried to impose court-appointed counsel. However, faced with protests from around the world and a boycott that saw almost all of 100 or more witnesses refuse to appear, the Appeal Chamber backed down and is allowing Milosevich to continue to represent himself. Jacobs points out that the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia is just as illegal as the US invasion of Iraq. Jacobs and Michael Mandel, author of "How America Gets Away With Murder: Illegal Wars, Collateral Damage and Crimes Against Humanity" presented a brief to the Tribunal prosecutors demanding that NATO be charged with atrocities such as bombing of civilian targets and the supreme war crime - war of aggression. They were told that the Tribunal has no authority over crimes against the peace.